Frei Otto rigorously subordinated himself to the physical laws governing membrane surfaces, systematically researched their geometric properties, and meticulously explored the possibilities of the individual modes of construction with the help of instrument-based technologies — the technical sphere manifests here, in the tradition of Friedrich Dessauer, as a “realization and coming-into-reality of ideas.” However, the fact that for Otto “technology” always implied “media technology” becomes apparent as soon as one incorporates questions that have been little explored in the history of architecture concerning the experimental dimension of his models and apparatuses in media terms. It was often Otto himself who documented his models, taking photographs from several different standpoints while he was still in the process of setting them up in his studio, or staging them as simulations, viewed as finished objects outdoors and in natural sunlight.